Mon 2 Nov 2009
Wende
Posted by kthomas under Miscellaneous at 10:15 am
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10 Responses to “Wende”
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nuts says:
Ach du lieber Himmel!
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum 20 Jahr-Jubiläum der Fall der Mauer trennte das deutsche Volk.
nuts says:
“Wende” können Sie glauben an
Ronit says:
Wat?
Jr. Mom says:
Talk about a teaser!
Don’t know German, but in the spirit of few words, how about a haiku?
Ken is in Berlin
Cold, grey, Fall, Iphone in hand,
we wait to hear…here.
P.S. Auf englisch, bitte.
kthomas says:
Well, if it must be English, I’ll try:
This was indeed a teaser. I hope I’ll have time for more, but the image says more than I can.
The recent posts on EphBlog — on everything from international students, to discussion and community– are so evokative of the Fall of 1989 at Williams. The discussions were the same; the issues, the underlying realities and dynamics, the same. The frustrations and hopes and disappointments, the same.
It’s just that — we don’t understand what they are. We see overarching panaceas, for difficult problems and multifaceted problems that afford no immediate or easy solutions. Or — perhaps; what do I know?
I experienced the Fall of the Berlin Wall from about as far a distance as one might– I was in the mailroom at Deep Springs, when the New York Times arrived, two days after the event.
Three months earlier I had been sitting in Arizona with the US Ambassador to the UN, whose words still ring and repeat in my mind– “never in our lifetimes,” he declared, “neither in my lifetime, nor yours” could the Iron Curtain fall.
What did he know?
The absolute shortsightedness of that position still boggles my mind (of course: in hindsight!). But of course, one person– Guenter Schabowski– opened the border checkpoints and proved that manner of thinking, wrong. By his actions.
We may wonder, what the course of events might have been, had he not acted.
* * *
I wonder how much he thought about it? Or was it the vodka?
* * *
All the above, then: as a few weeks of opportunity to think about what ‘change’ — true ‘change’ — is. Was heisst, >>Wende<<? Was war diese Wende? Was sagt diese Erfaehrung zu uns?
It bears adding– in German, “Wende” is not necessarily the normal, or the usual, way of saying “change”– >>Wende<< speaks of the Wind, of a Sea Change– of a different sort of event, than the usual course.
>>Freiheit<< — “Freedom” — is the other great Term which plays in these events. “Twenty years of German Freedom,” so it is said– does this imply that West Germany was not free, so long as the East was noch nicht?
* * *
I wish to end– not by — in a week (exactly) I will be sitting in a room, many of whose members have been Presidents or Prime Ministers– most of whom who will have served in such administrations for years.
Most of my week will be preparing for that– and to participate in that sort of event, at that level, in the languages expected(*).
Das, dass ich will reden ueber– jedenfalls ist es veilleicht einfacher auf Deutsch– I am concerned, when I hear a young woman, at Williams, declare that she feels, for whatever reason, that she feels “not smart enough,” nichtdestoweniger “not rich enough,” to sit and participate at Williams.
She may be the most qualified person of all– and I’ll refer you to Michael Brown’s comments here some time ago, that the women in his classes often have more to say, than the loudest voices.
Otherwise– it takes me about a week, to prepare myself to be in such company.
P.S. “Wat?” ‘Wat’ is niet duits!
Ronit says:
Thanks for the context, Ken. Hard to believe it’s been 20 years already.
I remember watching the wall come down on TV, probably on BBC or Doordarshan. My parents were dumbfounded by it. Looking back, it feels like one long, eventful summer – Tiananmen Square, the Wall, the death of Ceausescu, the August coup and tanks in Moscow, statues of Stalin and Lenin being torn down.
And the Gulf War, of course, which in my mind is merely a long piece of green night-vision footage narrated by Bernard Shaw. And the occasional newspaper or magazine article about acid rain. And getting to meet some relatives who had come back after being evacuated from Iraq by Air India (who set some kind of record by evacuating 110,000 Indian citizens).
An interesting turn of a decade. A lot changed.
I remember my globe and atlas, from which I had learned most of the countries and major cities of the world, becoming outdated in front of my eyes. We considered buying a new globe but decided to hold off until things settled down a bit.
frank uible says:
Twenty years ago the Wall fell, and thereby the citizens of East Germany received greater freedom, but yet the College continues to ban fraternities.
JeffZ says:
Prohibition of exclusive, traditionally white, Christian, and male, drinking-focused organizations notorious for hazing, the existence of which would undoubtedly drive Williams’ application volumes (particularly from underrepresented groups on campus) downward vs. prohibiting the exercise of basic human freedoms including freedom of movement, thought, and speech. Good analogy, Frank.
nuts says:
Perhaps DEKE could become the German speaking language house.
Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann,
Und mir steckt’s auch im Blut;
Drum wandr’ ich flott, so lang ich kann,
Und schwenke meinen Hut.
Refrain 1:
Faleri, falera, faleri,
Falera ha ha ha ha ha ha
Faleri, falera,
Und schwenke meinen Hut. more
melody
frank uible says:
Zeig heil!